Post production- ancillary poster improved

After receiving feedback from my target audience, the overall feedback was to alter the position of some of the text and perhaps change the text colours. They also mentioned that i needed to stick with the typical conventions of a poster, meaning i needed to add small print and make the main image the main focus of the image. 

I also added the ident but simply reversed the colouring on photoshop in order to fit in with the black background. The title of the film, i also changed slightly by reducing the stroke in photoshop to make it appear broken. I changed the font for the actors in order to be able to read their names more clearly. The tag line has remained in the same place and also the font has stayed the same as it fits well with the title. 

Post production- ancillary magazine front cover improved

After receiving feedback, i decided to change the main image to appeal better to the target audience. I did keep the colour scheme because i thought the colours worked well and stood out. I did increase the main images saturation to add warmth. I also reduced the amount of text on the cover, in order to show the characters more. 

The main image clearly shows to individuals as a couple, which fits the target audience better. The font used is more typical of a magazine.
After revisiting my magazine front cover, i noticed that it did not quite fit the typical conventions of a magazine. The font needed changing slightly as did the colour scheme. I found that some font was lost in the image, so i added black boxes. 

Evaluation question three

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?- Film Trailer

Target audience is extremely important during my creation stages, they enabled me to make changes to make my trailer appeal more to my target audience. It has been crucial for me as their opinions/likes/dislikes have made me understand what my target audience expect and want out of a film trailer. To obtain audience feedback about my products, i asked 10 people with an even split of males and females within my target audience range to give me their opinion and thoughts on my product i have created.

During the process of making our trailer, we received a number of audience feedback. The first feedback we received was from our three initial ideas that we pitched to the class. It enabled us to receive a wider opinion of the product we wanted to create as well as what our audience wanted. We filmed the class discussion and it was uploaded to YouTube as well as my blog. One of the main points was that we needed to make sure our narrative is clear, as this was a key issue last year. 

This feedback we received was extremely useful and gave us a staring point. We then were able to start brain storming our ideas and really begin to plan what we wanted to create. We decided to choose a romance genre as it was different to the genre we chose last year and also we found it interesting, we wanted to explore ways in which to present love on screen. When creating our idea, we did not consider the filming process, so we therefore decided to change it slightly to make it more achievable. We also wanted to subvert the stereotypical aspects in a romance, therefore changing the narrative slightly. 

The second audience feedback we received was from two classmates, they agreed that the other female character playing the role of the party planner, was simply not clear enough. So we changed the character to be the woman in which he cheats with her on 'Daisy'. This creates drama as well as tension. We often asked for advice on our work with these two classmates, it was informal and not recorded but helped us a lot to develop our product. 

We then showed our rough cut edit, which is also uploaded on YouTube and blogger, to fellow students and the class again. The feedback we received was extremely helpful, we collected the feedback on a Microsoft word document, making it easier to ensure we make all the changes people had made. The class fits within the target audience and consisted of both females and males therefore getting a wider opinion. The feedback mentioned how we needed to extend the duration of the titles, increase the volume of voice overs and add more dramatic shots of the actress Bridey. We also changed the non-diegetic music as we thought the atmosphere created wasn't quite what we wanted. The new song works well to create the mood ("Say something).

We also asked for feedback from our teacher before showing the class as he would point other aspects that perhaps the students wouldn't. He suggested that we add more shots with symbolism to represent the breaking of the relationship further making the narrative clearer. However, we did not want to conform to stereotypical conventions, so we did not feature the couple together in a few shots. We also filmed the shot of the lily dying to represent the death of the relationship. We did film a shot of china smashing (a mug) however, we felt it did not powerfully represent a break up. The feedback enabled us to sculpt our trailer to be more unique, unusual and professional , without the feedback we may not have achieved the trailer we had envisioned.

I created this survey to receive final feedback on my products. I have described the data i gathered and asked them to elaborate on their reasoning for their answer. I included feedback on my ancillary products previously in my blog as i was confident using Photoshop and wanted to create what my audience wanted/expected. I received feedback from both of my teachers as well as my peers to ensure i conform to conventions of a poster and magazine front cover as well as the genre. Due to the feedback i received, i changed the colour scheme as well as typography to improve the appearance of my ancillaries. This made them fit better with the genre, but as i mentioned in another evaluation i lost the synergistic links between the products.

Below are the presentations showing the audience feedback for all three products i have created.

Evaluation question one

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Conventions and forms are elements that are used to make a media product recognisable to an audience. These include both macro and micro elements. Micro elements is where you include elements such as high/low key lighting, quick cuts and location. Macro elements look at larger aspects and themes such as theorists like Todorov and his narrative theory. Both of these forms are needed in order for the product to be liked by the target audience. After researching into many media products, it has led me to discover the codes and conventions that make them recognisable.

Film Trailer Conventions Include; 

• Film Title
• Film Production Logos 
• Social Media 
• Music and voice overs
• Character Introductions 
• Release Date 

Magazine Cover Conventions Include; 

• Masthead 
• Tagline
• Cover Lines 
• Variety of Font Types 
• Main Image 
• Date and Barcode 

Film Poster Conventions Include; 

• Main Image 
• Release Date 
• Film Title 
• Billing Board
• Actor Names 
• Review and Rating 

Our film trailer is a of a romance genre, an it does subvert as well as conform to the typical conventions of a romance film. Our trailer does conform to many of the typical forms of a trailer. For example, we have included voice overs from the female characters, showing that the story will be told from her point of view. In addition, Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium is shown. The narrative begins with the couple in a happy relationship, there is another female character seen which causes a disruption to the equilibrium. We decided to end the trailer on an uncertain ending, leaving the target audience keen to watch the film to discover the ending. This is challenging Todorov's theory as the disequilibrium is not resolved. It is conventional of a trailer however, to leave it on a cliffhanger as the audience does not know everything that is going on, the narrative is clear but the resolution is unclear. It sparks enigma as the audience wants to know what It going to happen to all the characters in the film. The audience want to know all the details and the fact it is told by the female character is even more intriguing as the audience then creates a rapport with the character and can relate to the circumstances.

Throughout my research, I have established that when film trailers are published they are often shared on YouTube which is a video sharing website. They are also shown on other medias as well as TV. They are also promoted before feature films in a cinema. We decided it would be more cost effective and most appropriate. It is a free website and its social platform has increased rapidly the past few years, it is extremely popular with our target audience age range. It has been running for around 12 years and claims to have around 1 billion active users every month. This means the trailer has a wider demographic perhaps going beyond our target audience. In addition, it is easy to view trailers as often before the video you clicked plays, adverts are shown. Another strength of uploading our trailer to this site is that it is easy to share on other social media sites such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. By sharing it on social medias, its a
good way to receive feedback. It is a very successful site that can promote the product well and create a hype for the film release.

Regarding my ancillary products (poster and a magazine front cover),I decided to present these on my media blog. This challenges the conventions of media products as stereotypically these products are primarily distributed in print form. The posters are printed for billboards and the magazine front cover is printed alongside the rest of the magazine. Blogger s a digital platform and I thought it would be a good idea of publishing my products. My blog is published online so can be seen by many online users. It can also be shared through a number of medua platforms. It shows my progression of my work and also print work is become less popular, more people are online as it is easy, quick and saves money. It is instant access of many different products.

Evaluation one from EleanorCasey

Evaluation question two

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This is my plan for my vlog.